Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Space Dogs Adventure to the Moon

It
was tough being a hero of the Soviet Motherland. Poor Laika, the first dog
placed in orbit, died from hyperthermia, but the Soviets covered-up the details
of her painful demise for decades. In contrast, Ham the chimpanzee, the first
hominid in space, lived another seventeen peaceful years in DC’s National Zoo
following his mission into space. Have no fear, these cute canine cosmonauts will
fare better than their inspiration in Mike Disa’s Space Dogs Adventure to the Moon (trailer here), which opens this
Friday in regional markets.

If
you missed the original Space Dogs,
you should still be able to pick up on the subtleties of the relationships.
Scrappy young Pushok still dreams of following in the footsteps of his German
Shepherd cosmonaut father Kazbek—and he probably will, since family connections
trump merit in the 1960s-era USSR. His mother Belka, a former space dog, has
returned to the vaudeville circuit with her old partner Strelka, while Pushok
is on a good will tour at the Kennedy White House. However, when Kazbek
disappears while investigating suspicious activity on the Moon (including the
theft of the Eifel Tower via tractor beam), Pushok and Belka will hitch rides
on respective American and Soviet rockets to find him.

The
Moon edition of Space Dogs is pleasantly safe family fare, but it is sometimes interesting
to see how they deal with the historical details. JFK is never seen, but his
presence in the White House is clearly implied. However, poor Nikita Khrushchev
remains persona non grata. Disa and co-screenwriter Rolfe Kanefsky generally
tip-toe around the harsh realities of Soviet life, but Freud the hairless cat
is obviously a representative of the KGB or GRU attached to the Soviet space
program, which makes him decidedly sinister. On the other hand, Chip the chimpanzee
embodies a lot of American materialist stereotypes, but his Texan-ness is a
clever touch.

Younger
viewers who dig dogs and space are going to flip for Moon, because two plus two just equals four. However, it is
historically savvy enough to keep parents from totally zoning out and wondering
who will be brutally murdered next on Game
of Thrones. Nice enough as a diversion for the kids, Space Dogs Adventure opens this Friday (8/26) throughout Texas and
Arizona, the Aurora Plaza 8 in Colorado, and other cities (see complete list here).

About Me

J.B. (Joe Bendel) works in the book publishing industry, and also teaches jazz survey courses at NYU's School of Continuing and Professional Studies. He has written jazz articles for publications which would be appalled by his political affiliation. He also coordinated instrument donations for displaced musicians on a volunteer basis for the Jazz Foundation of America during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Send e-mail to: jb.feedback "at" yahoo "dot" com.